Gay Centre discos at the Matador
1979
“Prior to the Nightingale moving into town (Thorp St) in 1981 there was
nothing in the city centre other than the original Gay Community Centre
discos in Allison Street, bring your own booze, and 25p for a baked
potato, that sort of fund-raising. So there was a gap from when the
Gay Community Centre closed in 1979, but the Centre group tried to continue to hold social events,
including socials at the Matador which the Centre organised. These were
very relaxed, over time it became 60 – 70% women and the number of men
declined. But the Saturday night discos that Friend, Switchboard and
the Centre organised were mainly men, the Lesbian Line disco was women
only. The discos had an extension but only till midnight, as was quite
common with pubs that had late licences.”
“The Matador was in
the old Bull Ring and directly opposite the entrance to St Martins
Church, where Wagamanas is now, there used to be a spiral ramp which
went to the Matador entrance, right in the centre of the markets area,
it was quite busy, they opened at 3:00 -4:00 a.m. and had a markets’
licence allowing them to trade with the wholesale market and stall
holders. Most of their trade was early in the morning, anything at
night was a bonus, they were very quiet in the evenings so they started
hiring out to the community groups. The Centre approached them and they
were happy to have us and it turned out to be quite a money-spinner for
them. The Gay Community Centre group collected money on the door for
the Saturday disco, £1 and 50p unwaged. You could have over a hundred,
it was very popular. For the socials we didn’t charge but held raffles.“
Contributed by: Lyn David Thomas, 47